Hello,
I am trying to finalize my college list and am prioritizing biomedical engineering as my primary major. I want my college of choice to have some option for artificial intelligence as well (whether double major, minor, etc). I was wondering if anyone had any options for safeties, targets, and reaches for me to consider adding to my list. I would appreciate any suggestions and comments from anyone who has experience in this field!
Basic stats:
3.93 unweighted
11 APs by senior year
1580 SAT
Preferences:
Urban/suburban
Thank you in advance!
What is your home state? What financial limitations do you have?
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Home state is Texas. Can pay $40,000
In-state Texas public universities should be in your price range. Your class rank is highly important for admission to Texas public universities.
Biomedical engineering and computer science (where artificial intelligence is a subarea) are two very popular majors at more selective universities, so that changing major after enrolling in a more selective university* may be difficult.
However, much less selective universities may have space in those majors because the rigor scares away many of the students. Some of the richest universities may have space in those majors because they have enough money to maintain reserve capacity, but they are among the most difficult universities to get admitted to.
*UT Austin admits to major, but popular majors have little room for major changers; Texas A&M admits to first year engineering, but biomedical engineering and computer science are highly competitive, so that students who do not meet the 3.5 college GPA for automatic admission to major of choice have little chance of getting into those majors.
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Thank you for the explanation!!
Yes, I have auto admission to in-state public universities in Texas. I am pretty set in my major of biomedical engineering, so I am going forth with the idea that I will not be switching majors in college. I have added UT Austin and will be checking out A&M. I also have several reach options on my list, and I was wondering if you had any other options in the target/safety range.
Automatic admission to a Texas public university does not necessarily include admission to a competitive major.
Texas public universities with biomedical engineering include:
Houston
North Texas
Texas A&M
UT Arlington
UT Austin
UT Dallas
UT San Antonio
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Thank you for the list! I wanted to ask if anyone had any out-of-state options for me to consider as well?
Anywhere given these stats.
I don’t know if you have need or you just don’t want to spend more than $40K but I’d shoot for the top - and yes, they are reaches - but Hopkins or Ga Tech or Rice, etc. Publics will be harder to get need based aid but UVA meets. Northwestern is another good one.
Targets - BU, UMN, Tufts, Bucknell, Miami, Rochester
Great safeties are Rose Hulman, Utah, Purdue, RPI, NC State
Good luck
Purdue is not a safety for BME and the secondary admit process has the highest hurdle of any of the engineering majors.
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Utah is a safety for admission, within budget (if you stay for residency the cost without merit is $45K in year 1 then $25K in subsequent years) and you’ll likely get direct admit to the BME major with those stats.
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Many good suggestions so far.
Your next step is to run the Net Price Calculators at the meet full needs schools that could be on your list: Duke, Rice, JHU, etc, and let us know the results.
NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate beyond a primary home…are any of these situations the case for you?
If your expected contribution is around $40K that will work for many of these schools. If colleges believe your family can pay more than $40K, meet full need schools with little to no merit aid will likely have to come off your list.
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/duke
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/jhu
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/rice
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Thank you for the great list! I will be sure to check those out!
A friend’s D20 from our TX HS was a cum laude grad with 34 ACT (NM Commended). Didn’t get UT BME, not sure if CAP’d. Enrolled at A&M BME. Solid EC’s but not outstanding.
Another guy in same class applied ED to JHU BME. 1500+ SAT and also honors grad. Eagle Scout. Rejected at JHU and admitted to UT BME. Last I heard he was hoping to go to Rice but not sure if he got in.
You don’t need more safeties though right, if you already have the UT Austin auto-admit, and can afford it. If you’re ok with a couple more public reaches, you can consider Michigan, maybe a UCLA or Berkeley, but the FA could be non-existent for OOS. If your private OOS reaches are JHU, Duke, NU, others mentioned in the thread, I’m not sure you want to add more of those.
Automatic admission to UT Austin does not include automatic admission to competitive majors.
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Rice would be a good College to add to your list. If you are admitted, tuition is automatically reduced by 50% if family income is under $200,000 and tuition is free if family income is less than $130,000.
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*Assuming Typical Assets
That line means a lot !! Caught me on my daughter’s admission.
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Not sure where the cutoffs are but someone making $110K with $55K in cash and non-retirement assets and $80K in home equity would get free tuition. “Student and parent contribution” would be $17,700 per year with $2500 in work study. Potentially cheaper than UT-Austin.